3 held for pelting stones on shop near Shivaji statue, Pune

The Shivaji statue at Sasanenagar, where youths pelted stones at a shop
Pratham Gokhaledna

Pune: Three youths have been arrested for rioting and stone pelting a shop near the Shivaji statue at Sananenagar. On Friday, the trio were produced before the court of judicial magistrate (First Class) Jyoti Kotnis and has been remanded in police custody till June 8.

The arrested have been identified as Raj Gulab Shaikh, 25, Shahrukh Khan, 29, and Siraj Sayyed, 26, all residents of Sayyednagar. They have been booked under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code comprising of rioting, assault and trespassing.
A resident of Hadapsar, Avinash Rakshe, 24, who runs a a shop of Flex shops situated near the Shivaji statue, lodged a complaint with Hadapsar police station.
Rakshe, who was injured on his head, hand and leg said, “We were busy in the shop making flexes when around 9 pm, a gang of 20 persons came and started abusing us. Later, they started throwing stones at my shop. When I tried to alert the police, they forcibly entered, snatched my mobile and ransacked my entire shop. They thrashed me and my employees. “ Assistant commissioner of police Rajan Bhogale said, “At present we have arrested those person involved in stone pelting case at shop keepers. We are also probing if they were involved in creating rumours or throwing stone at the statue earlier. Since we had increase the bandobast in the area, there were very few chances of further stone-pelting of the statue. One of the arrested, Siraj has a criminal past and was externed by the police for one year.”
Assistant public prosecutor Pandit Jadhav argued, “The nature of incident is serious and sensitive. For maintaining peace in the city, it is important to have a custodial investigation.”